the sacred master-student relationship, cruelly inverted
by pozarpel
Summary: Lin's less-than-pleasant experience with the Davis boys. The first of a lifetime's worth. [ One/Two-shot ]


Two boys. Dark-haired. Pale-skinned. One serene, the other sullen—_at least_, Lin thought, _I'll be able to tell them apart if they keep on like that._

And they would, but him, he was having second thoughts. Many second thoughts.

The two little boys in front of him were certainly not Englishmen.

Some part of him decried his own irrationality: these were _two little boys, _nevermind the second one's pre-visible bad attitude, and he shouldn't begin to feel uncomfortable. No. No. No. It had been bad enough getting used to Madoka, who had caught on within a week and spoke in her native tongue just to unnerve him and refused to keep out of his way, but these were children. _Children._ There shouldn't be one immoral thought in their heads.

Then Lin remembered he was horrible with children, too, and any hope of salvaging his predicament here dissipated in an instant.

Martin Davis came around behind the boys, resting his hands on their shoulders. One of them flinched, and it almost made Lin flinch right back. "This is Eugene, and this is Oliver," Martin said blithely, patting each in turn. Lin swallowed his mounting distress, nodding once and avoiding eye contact. Martin didn't seem to notice, but in his peripheral vision, Lin could see their little black-haired heads shift and turn as they exchanged a glance.

It was somehow creepier. Lin could not see himself being cordial enough with them. He cleared his throat as his eyes wandered down. "Professor Davis, I had no idea your sons were J—"

They stared. Martin tilted his head, always interested in that earnest way of his, and Lin cringed inwardly. He'd said the wrong thing. He couldn't have his teacher, superior, sponsor knowing he took issue with certain ethnicities. Again, it had been enough of a struggle with Madoka.

"—just so… well-behaved." He finished. "For their ages."

The glowering twin raised his eyebrows minutely; the other raised one in confusion. Martin rubbed his neck, laughing. "Yes, well, they're very mature. Gene's a bit of a troublemaker, and Noll has his moments—"

"All of his other teachers gave up," Gene put in, sounding more sad than taunting. His brother's expression darkened, and Lin felt a crawling foreboding come over him. "His form's perfect, really perfect, but it's more his…" His mouth twisted; he couldn't find a nice way to word it, and he turned a pleading look at Lin as if to ask him to break this pattern of quitters.

"I think they're scared of him," Martin said good-naturedly. Nobody wanted to point out his attitude as the source of their troubles, though this was becoming more and more evident to Lin with each dreaded moment he stood there.

"If they claim to deal with the violently supernatural on a regular basis but can't find it in themselves to stick it out with an eleven year old boy, then I probably don't need them as teachers," and that was the first thing Lin ever heard Noll say, cold and brutal even early on. In contrast with his brother's imploring gaze, the look Noll turned on him then was raw challenge.

Lin wasn't the type to jump on challenges. Nor was he the type to associate with children, or befriend Japanese people. If there had been any way to back out, he would have taken it, and he would have ran.

But he knew his place and he knew his skill set and he knew that Oliver Davis was a phenomenon (and now he knew he was a brat.) Lin didn't have too forceful a willpower, and though he was unsettled to a major degree by their background and moreover, those two staring, searching pairs of eyes facing right up at him—the worst kind of intrepid—Lin had a small confidence in his ability to help his colleague's son. He'd heard all about the poltergeists, some the worst Professor Davis had documented in years.

He could do this. He just had to seal all his doubts and concerns and slow, bubbling loathing deep, deep inside.

"Well, I'll leave you to get acquainted," Martin spoke up, drawing his hands back to his coat pockets. "The wife is waiting; you know how it is."

Lin did in fact not know how it was, but he said his politest goodbyes along with the twins. Awkward. Awkward. He remained bravely stoic. The door closed. And in the form of two eleven year old Japanese boys, "hell" began.

The silence was stifling, and lasted at least another half minute as Lin thought over something to say. Damn it, he couldn't even carry an amicable conversation with someone who wasn't eleven or Japanese, let alone two someones who were both.

"Uh," Gene started. He glanced at his brother and didn't even get the slightest acknowledgement, then looked back up at the taller man with a small smile. "Lin, you're Chinese, right?"

He stiffened, blood running cold. Of all the things to…

"Is that a problem?" he said icily, narrowing his eyes. Gene didn't seem to acknowledge that.

"No, I was just wondering what dialect you speak."

That was a little surprising. Lin didn't answer right away, so Gene took it upon himself to go on.

"_Gan? Jin? Wu?"_ he asked, ticking them off on his fingers. His pronunciation was surprisingly good; proud father he was, Martin Davis didn't exaggerate his sons' capabilities, it seemed. "_Yue? Hui?_ I'm forgetting some… Will you teach me?"

"What?" he asked dumbly, not comprehending. To make matters worse, Noll was staring at him in deep judgment.

"To speak your dialect? I know you're Noll's teacher but why not, right? I don't know much Chinese at all, but I speak fluent Japanese and they're somewhat similar in terms of structure, right?"

"It's…" Unsure of how to handle this, he looked at Noll, who simply averted his eyes. So he just let his brother run amuck with his mouth, then?

"If it helps, I'm also fluent in a few Indian dialects—a Chinese spirit spoke through me once, I think it was _Hui_ or _Wu_, but I'm not really sure. I'd like a teacher more than Noll does, really." From what Lin understood, even though Noll had the problem with control, Gene was supposedly helpful and so Professor Davis always sent them to testing together. A matched set.

Lin cleared his throat, addressing the other twin. "Is that so? You don't even want a teacher?"

"No," Noll said, as if his patience was being taxed. "I understand that I can't learn how to control my psychokinetic… mishaps without one."

If that wasn't the most begrudging thing Lin had ever heard…

"So. What can you teach me about _qigong_?"

Two expectant pairs of eyes. Lin smoothed his hand down his face.

"First of all, I can already tell that you're something of a hothead, aren't you?"

He balked, annoyed. "What does that have to do with anything?" Gene was laughing a little into his hand, trying not to be impolite about it. Lin tensed at the sound, and looked at Noll in this tense bearing with a dour frown. How could he be so unintimidated? Most people looked once at Lin and immediately forgot how to be defiant. They were usually shushed into silence by his sharp looks and otherwise, too, but neither twin was fazed at all. Unfortunate, considering how little Lin wanted to speak with them.

Lin took a deep breath. "I'm going to teach you restraint. Qigong is a practice you apply to more than one part of your life, not only the spiritual aspect. If you are really as strong as I've heard, this is very important—and it should be no problem for you. It must be taken seriously."

The boy's face soured. He didn't like to be baited. And Lin didn't like to stoop to such immaturity. And he didn't like Japanese people.

And he definitely didn't like Noll and Gene Davis.

* * *

(( ah man this would have been so much better drawn I just had this perfect image of frozen Lin being like "... I... didn't know your sons were J-"

cue Martin's lovable proud father face

"j-just so well behaved"

also the effect of Gene being pestering while Noll just stared with a face of judgment would have come across better  
Lin is the type to bottle things up until he just explodes (unlike Noll, who just... doesn't let himself feel to begin with, I guess) so after like two days of Gene hanging on his arm speaking in broken Chinese and Noll giving him glares and hearing them speak to each other in Japanese he's just like 'i hATE JAPANESE PEOPLE' and Noll is just like 'do I look like I give one half of a shit, Lin' in the chilliest tone  
and Lin is shamed into forever meekly being Noll's "friend/babysitter/teacher/underling"  
or I could have done it Gene's way which is probably much cuter actually I bet Lin really loves Gene for that and patted his head and said, "ok, I won't," in Chinese and Gene was like *^* ))


End file.
